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Archive for the ‘shibori’ Category

Happiness is Creating Art

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

Buoyed by this news, I have been having a wonderful day.

American evolutionary-psych researchers have produced eye catching research suggesting that women whose hips are significantly bigger than their waists are more intelligent, and tend to produce more intelligent babies. They believe that this might explain why men tend to be attracted to women with this type of physique, apparently theorising that what men really really want is women (and children) likely to be cleverer than themselves.

Who knew? I thought my kids got their brains from their father.

Yesterday, was a lost day. It was a really dark and stormy day. the wind was blowing mightily. Trees and branches were falling all around us. And the power went out. It is so spooky quiet when the power goes off. No background humming of the computers and the furnace. Mr C and I did our class homework next to the window with a fire blazing in the fireplace.

Today was glorious — bright and sunny —, and after a nice long walk with Mr C and Maggie, I got quite a bit done in the studio.

I have to get at least two journal size quilts done for a High Fiber Diet show next month, titled Small Treasures. And I am still working on the Good to Be Green quilt which I can not show you.

I have had this idea percolating in my brain — that is to use indigo shibori fabric to make aspens in a night time scene. So here is my go at it for one of my Small Treasure pieces.

This is the general layout.

indigoaspen1.jpg

I wanted to put some silver foil on the moon. First, I applied some glue with a small brush, very lightly.

indigomoonglue.jpg

I got a lot more foil adhering than I had planned for so I just went with it.

indigomoonfoil.jpg

I decided to do hand stitching with Perle cotton. I did some silver stitching in the foiled moonlight and the trees are stitched with a dark blue.

indigomoonstitching.jpg

I really enjoy doing the Perle cotton embellishing.

Here is some stitching I did on the Good to Be Green piece. I have not clipped the threads because I might want to leave some dangling threads.

goodtobegreenstitching.jpg

The sweet Deborah of Deborah’s Journal has posted some photos of my work hanging at the Houston show. Click on the link if you would like to take a look.

Hope you are all busy and creating, too.

Finishing Touches

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

I have to send in my inventory for the Japanese Garden show at the end of the week. So I am trying to get everything done. Here are the two little framed pieces that I did. After seeing the photos of last night’s lunar eclipse, I have named them Lunar Eclipse and Lunar Eclipse 2. I had a little problem with reflection in the glass. The actual work is about 4 and half inches square.
lunareclipse.jpg

lunareclipse2.jpg

Here are closeups. Click for larger views.

lunareclipsecloseup.jpg lunareclipse2closeup.jpg

I also finished the winter bamboo fence. This has a facing and will have a silver bamboo hanging rod.

winterbamboofence.jpg

And a closeup:

winterfencecloseup.jpg

I like the original bamboo fence better, but this was fun to work on.

I need to attach the bamboo rods to this and two other pieces. I also have several silk scarves that I am putting in the show.

VIRTUAL IRAQ WAR PROTEST: Time for an update on the virtual protest. I hope that those of you who received bumper stickers and have not sent me a jpeg of your sticker for the virtual protest will still do so. I just added a new photo. If you have not checked out the virtual protest which is on my Flickr page, just click on the End this/endless bumper sticker on my sidebar.

Its Raining, Its Pouring

Monday, August 20th, 2007

Yep, we had lots of rain in Portland, today. But I didn’t care. I have been making a mess in my studio and I produced another work using some of my art cloth from my summer classes. This one is titled Indigo Moons (what else).

I needed to make the piece a little larger than the dimensions of the art cloth that I started with. So I cut it and auditioned some fabric that would work in the insert as a background for more moons. Here are two that didn’t work for me. Clickable to see larger. The first one is the same fabric before the indigo treatment. The second is a piece of indigo cotton from my workshop.

moons2.jpg moons3.jpg

I decided that I needed more punch so I went with a more colorful fabric.

indigomoons.jpg

I like how the brighter colors are in the main piece in a very light value. This has a satin stitched edge.

I am so excited because I get to sleep in my own bed tonight. Mr C finished the painting. Now I am busy doing laundry and getting the guest areas ready for Mark and Jayme. They are down in the Sisters area camping with M & M and their parents. I think the rain stayed in the north so hopefully they have had a nice dry time. Everyone is coming back to Portland tomorrow. I have to plan a big family dinner for tomorrow night.

I just have to add that I love, love how the new paint looks in our bedroom. I need to get busy and get the new curtains made to finish it off. I am also looking for a new duvet cover to go with the new decor. I have one I bought at IKEA ages ago, and it looks pretty good.

Shibori Wrap-up

Tuesday, July 31st, 2007

This morning I got my hair dyed and discharged. So now I have some summery highlights in my red hair. It took 2 and a half hours so I feel as if the day is passing me by.

I want to finish uploading and making notes about my shibori pieces as this will serve as my virtual notebook of my work.

Judileigh knew that I was having a carpal tunnel problem which made the arashi wraps very difficult for me. She suggested I try stitching a tube to fit over a pvc pipe. Here is a silk dupioni wrap that I did by pinning and marking. I brought it home and stitched it.

shiborisewnwrap.jpg

Here it is after dipping in dye:

shiborisewnafterdye.jpg

Here it is coming off the pipe:

shiboristitchedremoval.jpg

Here is part of Sunday’s work. I bought a yard of linen from the school fabric locker. It was a very lightweight and loosely woven linen. I did lots of different techniques so that I will have pieces to collage.

shiborisaturday.jpg

  1. On the left is this scarf (second photo down on the left) wrapped and dipped in indigo.
  2. Next is a piece of red orange dupioni silk folded and clamped with washers and dipped in indigo.
  3. Top of the third row is a piece of the linen. The lines were created by making folds and doing a running stitch along the folds. Then they are drawn up tightly and tied off for dyeing in indigo.
  4. On the left underneath is the heavily stitched piece from earlier in the week that I folded and clamped with circles, probably film container lids.
  5. On the right is another plaid shibori. I used the linen and made half inch vertical folds which I stitched and pressed. Then I did the same thing, horizontally. The fold cause a resist, making lighter areas. The stitching also leaves some lovely fine lines.
  6. Top of the next row is the linen which was folded and clamped with two canning jar lids held in place with rubber bands.
  7. Underneath is the linen that was folded and clamped with different circles.
  8. Top piece in the last row is the dupioni silk that was stitched into a tube to make an arashi wrap.
  9. Beneath are linen that was tie-dyed and folded and clamped with bag clamps. (I am on the look out for these. they are like large barrettes.)

Here are close-ups of some of these pieces.
siborisaturdaycloseup.jpg

shiboriscarfoverydye.jpg

Here are the remaining 3 pieces:

shiborisunday.jpg

  1. Top left is a piece of the linen on which I tried to use a piece of bamboo as a resist. I didn’t get the results that I want, but it is a nice organic looking piece of cloth.
  2. The bottom piece was a hand-dyed lime green which I tie-dyed around screws and then arashi wrapped on a pole.
  3. The final piece is the linen which I hand sewed around the pvc pipe for an arashi wrap. I love this piece. Here is a close-up:

shiborilinenwrapcloseup.jpg

My table mate Rita was obsessed with the triangle wrap which I tried on two pieces. She did it on silk first and got the mushy results that I got. She then used cotton and some very precise pressed folds and wrapping. Here is how it looked after coming off the pipe.

shiborifoldedtrianglewrap.jpg

Here it is after unwrapping. It is really gorgeous. Her tenacity paid off.

shiboritrianglereveal.jpg

It was interesting to watch all of the working styles. I was after lots of textures and fabrics to use in quilts. Some class members were very project orientated. Some just played and experimented with fabric with no intended use.

Aerobic Shibori

Friday, July 27th, 2007

I am a very tired old lady tonight. I had a marathon dyeing day with the big old natural indigo pot. Here it is being readied for the day’s activities. The sludge which lies on the top has to be removed and saved to be put back in at the end.

naturalindigopot.jpg

Here is one of the pvc pipes with an arashi wrap that has been dyed in the big pot.

arashiwrappedpole.jpg

Imagine a pole a couple of inches wider that that one and about 5 feet tall which is what I use to wrap a large silk charmeuse scarf. Silk requires several dips in the pot and then oxidation in between. While this gigantic pole is in the pot, it must be held so that it does not touch the bottom where it will disturb the sludge that develops over time. I think I dipped it about 10 -12 times. Here is the resulting scarf hanging to dry. It is the large scarf on the left.

shiboriindigoscarf.jpg

I did several other pieces and pulled the threads on some pieces that I made yesterday. I am just too pooped to take photos so you will have to wait. Here is my old lime green t-shirt transformed, however.

indigotshirt.jpg

We could only use the natural indigo until 2 pm and then we had to put the scum back in and add some lime to bring it back to life and then it needs to rest overnight. Here it is all bubbling and full of life. The slimy stuff is called the flower.

indigoflower.jpg

This is a college level class for which one can get credit and so a final project is expected. That is to be our work for the next two days. I am one of those follow the rules kinda people so when asked what I would do for the project, I proposed dyeing fabric to make a bog coat. It is a patternless, kimono like coat. I left class early to come home and prepare some fabric. To be honest, I ran out of gas and don’t have the energy to do it. Instead, I am just gonna keep dyeing scarves and making fabric which I can use in quilts.

I thought this was a cool site – the indigo gloves.

indigogloves.jpg